Tuning...

Although I've been pretty quiet on the 18GB front over the last few months, I have been doing some development.  The main task is to tune the train mix, both at the start of the game and at the game end.  I intend to run several tests before I ask people to play the game again, as it wouldn't seem fair to table the game without these tests.  Maybe if I had more regular gaming sessions I'd take a different tack but this approach seems right for my current circumstances.

In my most recent solo game, one of the questions I tested was what would happen if a player decides not to buy any Private Railways.  I wouldn't mind if this were a viable option but it would be a disaster if it were a game winning tactic because in that case no-one would want to buy any Privates at all.  Fortunately the game confirmed my paper calculations: the players who bought no Private Railways were at a significant disadvantage.

The new rules for ending the game seemed to work as well.  These will be hard to confirm without real players, as a lot will depend on the choices that people make, but the rules performed well in a solo game, enough for me to stick with these rules until they are tried in anger.

The other question that I'm investigating with these solo games is how quickly the trains come out, given different player choices.  If my expectations are met, a key factor will be how many companies players choose to start in the first Stock Round.  In most of my playtests, one player has had enough cash to start two companies, each of which has bought trains.  An alternative would be for each player to start one company, probably slowing the rate at which the trains come out.  It may even be a valid tactic for one player to start no companies and play the investor role; I will need to see how this affects the train progression (and indeed how well it works as a tactic).

In summary, progress is being made, but slowly...